Well my brother sent me this one thing on Feb 29 and it basically said that since the leap year was invented in 45bc by ceaser, and that since the Mayans didnt account for it when making their calendar, the end of the calendar was over seven months ago.Since its invention, about 514 leap years have passed. Not accounting for it, today would be August 14 or 15, 2013.Yep. We arent going to die this year! As if we were going to anyways...

_________________"As I look up from the groundI see darkness all aroundAnd I'm lost but can be found up in the skyGoodbye"

Similar to how there are different scales (Celsius, Fahrenheit) to measure the same quantity, temperature, there are different scales or calendars for measuring the passage of time. Since they are a measure of the same thing, you can convert a value from one to the other. The end of whatever cycle in the Mayan calendar is December 21st in the Gregorian calendar. Leap years were taken into account when converting simply because they are a part of the Gregorian calendar.

_________________

And what it all comes down tois that everything's gonna be quite alright

If the Mayans had lived longer than their dissolution, they might have updated their calendar.

My Windows '98 computer doesn't have a calendar date past 2099! *GASP* I'm confused now: either the world already ended, it ends 12/12/12, or it ends 1/1/2100. WHICH IS IT?! Someone had to have known at least 100 years prior! If it doesn't end this year, I want to know that I should be **** 86 from now before then. Please, tell me! I hate surprises. )=

Both the Mayan and Gregorian calendars use days as a base unit. Thus, they can be converted between each other provided you have a starting point from which to work off of. I'll explain what that is in a moment.

First, a crash course in how the Mayan calendar (or at least the Long Count) works. In the Mayan calendar, dates are written as a series of numbers (like 12.19.19.4.2, which is today's date).

The last number is k'in (days).The second-to-last number is winal, each of which is made from 20 k'in.The middle number is tuns, each of which made from 18 winal.The second number is k'atuns, each of which is made from 20 tun.The first number is b'ak'tuns, each of which is made from 20 k'atun.

These dates are calculated from a specific day in the past, which is believed to be the starting date of creation in Mayan religion: August 11, 3114 BC. Thus, August 12, 3114 BC would be written as 0.0.0.0.1. 144,000 (20 k'in x 18 winal x 20 tun x 20 k'atun) days later, you would arrive at 1.0.0.0.0, or November 13, 2720 BC. 2.0.0.0.0 would be February 16, 2325 BC, and so on.

The "doomsday" date of December 21, 2012 AD is the end of the 13th b'ak'tun, calculated as such because it is 1,872,000 days after the "creation" date of August 11, 3114 BC. Leap years are irrelevant to the Mayan calendar because it sees the leap day the same as the day before it and the day after it, just 1/20 of a winal. It isn't synchronized with the seasons like ours is.

While we're on the subject, the "doomsday" prophecy is a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar. This world is, apparently, the fourth, with the three worlds before it having failed. The third ended at the end of the 13th b'ak'tun. People saw this and believed every world ended at the end of its 13th b'ak'tun, including this one. There is nothing, however, to support the idea that this world was prophecied to end at the end of the 13th b'ak'tun. A significant event, yes, but we do the same thing with centuries and millenia, they are events that we humans tend to celebrate passing through.

Thank you F_W for explaining yourself.So I guess the whole idea of doomsday is unpredictable. In sense.Natural doomsdays as in Earthquake, Tsunami, Volcano, etc. are predictable.Also, the occasional nuke the **** that destroys the Earth (Ok N. Korea. We know. You have a whopping 10 nukes. USA has about 2700 times that much. So, yeah. Sit down, shut up, or die.) are also predictable.

_________________"As I look up from the groundI see darkness all aroundAnd I'm lost but can be found up in the skyGoodbye"

Ive never believed in this sort of thing, i believe the end of the world is when you die. Its the end of YOUR world! Thats me as usual though, i dont believe in religion, i believe in science so, when you die thats it.

If the Mayans had lived longer than their dissolution, they might have updated their calendar.

My Windows '98 computer doesn't have a calendar date past 2099! *GASP* I'm confused now: either the world already ended, it ends 12/12/12, or it ends 1/1/2100. WHICH IS IT?! Someone had to have known at least 100 years prior! If it doesn't end this year, I want to know that I should be **** 86 from now before then. Please, tell me! I hate surprises. )=

You'll be putting up with it for a while..... Nostradamus's last prediction is in, what, 4000 years?

EDIT: Sorry, couldn't resist:

_________________"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." -Abraham Lincoln"You can't argue with all the fools in the world- it's best to let them have their way and trick them while they're not looking." -BromCredit to Jester for the avatar!

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